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The technology sector experiences constant change. Product lifecycles can be mere months, new software iterations come out all the time, and novel gadgets regularly arrive on the market. Technology firms are often excellent at making quick, constant improvements. But what about their ability to handle bigger changes and to quickly and effectively implement major new strategies—the kind that move markets and can impact whether a firm’s product or service will still be viable in the next few years? The answer to that question, as companies like RIM and HP have shown us, isn’t as rosy.

In the video below, my colleague Kathy Gersch and I discuss the different kinds of change affecting the tech industry and companies’ ability to handle those changes. I’d be interested in your thoughts on how your enterprise has dealt with some of the issues we mention.

A full transcription of this video post is below:

Kathy Gersch: John, we work with a lot of technology companies that have been successful over time, and they're used to moving very quickly launching new software versions, new products, new innovation, and consider themselves quite innovative, but yet come to us because they're struggling with how to really change. They're, frankly, kind of bad at it. Why do you think that is?

John Kotter: Well, part of their challenge is they think, "We change all the time, therefore we know how to change." And it's often a CEO or somebody who kind of figures out—click , the light goes on—"Well no. There's change, and there's change.” There are certain kinds of versions —1.0, 2.0, 3.0—so they see that and say, "Look, our products are changing all the time."

Kathy Gersch: Exactly.

John Kotter: But that's different from dealing with something fundamentally happening in their competitive environment.

Kathy Gersch: Cloud computing.

John Kotter: That's a huge one. Or the market changes in some fundamental way that requires some new distribution channels. And a whole new way of the sales force having to organize.

Kathy Gersch: Direct selling to partner selling.

John Kotter: Okay, and increasingly, in a fast moving world, those bigger leaps are becoming a part of their life and that's a different process than the da-dump, da-dump, da-dump, for example, with version 3.0, 4.0, 5.0.